Respuestas de sistematización del problema

The following two definitions of the New Age Movement (NAM) both emphasise the theme of transformation. First of all, the Encyclopedia of New

Religious Movements states that:

The New Age Movement taken as a whole is more a vision than a coherent system of beliefs and practices. As a movement it is an acephalous movement though… the opinions of a number of its exponents, among them those of Baba Ram Dass (Richard Alpert), are widely respected and have acquired a form of scriptural authority

－ and a highly decentralised movement. It is also a decentralised movement though there are New Age communities with their own clearly defined beliefs and practices built [sic]. What more than anything else gives a degree of unity to the New Age Movement is the goal aspired to by all participants, transformation of consciousness. (Kemp, 2004, p. 4 cited in Clarke 2005)

Second, explanations for the theme of transformation can be found in the

New Age Encyclopedia (Melton et al. 1990). The term ‘New Age’ is

described as a possible ‘imminent’ transformation of culture and of humanity itself when people experience personal transformations. It also addresses a specific timeframe for the NAM, defining the NAM as:

An international social movement which emerged in Western society in the late 1960s and which, during the 1980s, has showed itself to be an important new force in the development of the ever-changing Western culture. As a movement it is quite recent, but it has emerged from older movements and has integrated long-standing ideas and trends in the West. While freely accepting new

philosophy and life. The New Age Movement can be defined by its primal experience of transformation. …Having experienced a personal transformation, New Agers project the possibility of the transformation … of the culture and of humanity itself… the New Age’s imminence gives the movement its name. (Melton et al. 1990, p.xiii)

The idea of the New Age as a whole movement, in which the focus is on the idea of transformation, is also found in J. Gordon Melton’s work (1991; 1992; 1995; 1998; Melton et al. 1990). According to Melton, the NAM, as a type of NRM, is a new social and religious movement, which, to a large extent, represents the metaphysical/occult phase of the spread of NRMs during the 1980s. In addition, Melton indicates that the theme of transformation in the NAM is a new version that was developed in the late 1980s in place of the millennial version, which is a former vision of the New Age in the 1960s.

In order to set a boundary for the NAM, Melton et al. (1990, p.xxii) suggest that it is better to trace it back to 1971 when ‘eastern religion and transpersonal psychology had achieved a level of popularity, and metaphysical leaders could begin to articulate New Age vision’. According to Melton (1992, 1998), the historical roots of this version of a new age were derived from the Arcane School in connection with a theosophical world-view; the School was founded in the 1920s by the British theosophist Alice A. Bailey (see also Clarke, 2006, pp.28-29). The version of a coming New Age was developed into a self-conscious network during the 1960s, when the so-called the 'New Age Movement' was formed. At that time it emphasised a new millennial vision, sometimes called the Aquarian Age. This millennial version was spread by primarily British metaphysical teachers throughout Great Britain, North America, continental Europe, South Africa, and Australia.

It flowered into a broad social movement during the 1980s. By the late 1980s, however, the millennial version of the New Age was abandoned by its

advocates such as David Spangler, the early New Age prophet, who announced changes in his thinking. Instead, Spangler focused on the symbolic meaning of the 'New Age', which emphasised visions of transformation, both in society and in individuals. They argued that personal transformation is the first step to social transformation. Since then, the meaning of the 'New Age' has been transformed from a millennial vision to a vision of transformation at social and individual levels.

Melton’s version of the New Age locates the NAM in the context of NRMs; in the next section I will show that the NAM also has connections with other movements in addition to NRMs.

Two main conclusions emerge from this discussion. The first is that it makes good sense to think in terms of the New Age as a broad spiritual movement with a core of shared beliefs. The second conclusion is more important. It insists that the NAM contains an extremely wide diversity of beliefs, practices and organisations and, as such, constitutes an interesting challenge for sociological analysis. In common with some other researchers, I shall therefore emphasis the NAM’s ‘reticulate’ or net-like characteristics. In particular, I shall stress the ‘imbrication’ or partial overlap within the NAM of many closely related forms of spirituality.